Credit risk

About: Credit risk is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 18595 publications have been published within this topic receiving 382866 citations.

A Simple Approach to Valuing Risky Fixed and Floating Rate Debt

Abstract: We develop a simple approach to valuing risky corporate debt that incorporates both default and interest rate risk. We use this approach to derive simple closed-form valuation expressions for fixed and floating rate debt. The model provides a number of interesting new insights about pricing and hedging corporate debt securities. For example, we find that the correlation between default risk and the interest rate has a significant effect on the properties of the credit spread. Using Moody's corporate bond yield data, we find that credit spreads are negatively related to interest rates and that durations of risky bonds depend on the correlation with interest rates. This empirical evidence is consistent with the implications of the valuation model.

Pricing Derivatives on Financial Securities Subject to Credit Risk

Abstract: This article provides a new methodology for pricing and hedging derivative securities involving credit risk. Two types of credit risks are considered. The first is where the asset underlying the derivative security may default. The second is where the writer of the derivative security may default. We apply the foreign currency analogy of Jarrow and Turnbull (1991) to decompose the dollar payoff from a risky security into a certain payoff and a "spot exchange rate." Arbitrage-free valuation techniques are then employed. This methodology can be applied to corporate debt and over the counter derivatives, such as swaps and caps. THE PURPOSE OF THIS article is to provide a new theory for pricing and hedging derivative securities involving credit risk. Two sources of credit risk are identified and analyzed. The first is where the asset underlying the derivative security may default, paying off less than promised. This is the case, for example, with imbedded options on corporate debt. The second is the credit risk introduced by the writer of the derivative security, who may also default. Examples include over-the-counter writers of options on Eurodollar futures, swaps, and swaptions. For pricing derivative securities involving credit risk, there are currently two approaches. The first views these derivatives as contingent claims not on the financial securities themselves, but as "compound options" on the assets underlying the financial securities. This is the case, for example, with the pricing of imbedded options on corporate debt (see Merton (1974, 1977), Black and Cox (1976), Ho and Singer (1982), Chance (1990), and Kim, Ramaswamy, and Sundaresan (1993)) or the pricing of vulnerable options (see Johnson and Stulz (1987)). In practice, however, this valuation methodology is difficult to use. First, the assets underlying the financial security are often not tradeable and therefore their values are not observable. This makes application of the theory and estimation of the relevant parameters problematic. Second, as in the case of corporate debt, all of the other liabilities of the firm senior to the corporate debt must first (and simultaneously) be valued. This generates significant computational difficulties. As a result, this approach has not

Merton, Robert C.

Abstract: Robert C Merton is John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard Business School He shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997 He introduced Ito calculus to finance and economics and made significant contributions in asset pricing, corporate finance, empirical finance, and financial systems His most notable works include the intertemporal capital asset pricing model, the Black–Scholes–Merton option pricing formula, the Merton jump-diffusion model, and the Merton structural model for credit risk Keywords: Robert Merton; continuous-time finance; intertemporal capital asset pricing model; derivatives; options; Merton model; credit risk; institutions; financial systems

Debt Maturity Structure and Liquidity Risk

Abstract: This paper analyzes debt maturity structure for borrowers with private information about their future credit rating. Borrowers' projects provide them with rents that they cannot assign to lenders. The optimal maturity structure trades off a preference for short maturity due to expecting their credit rating to improve, against liquidity risk. Liquidity risk is the risk that a borrower will lose the nonassignable rents due to excessive liquidation incentives of lenders. Borrowers with high credit ratings prefer short-term debt, and those with somewhat lower ratings prefer long-term debt. Still lower rated borrowers can issue only short-term debt.

Default Risk in Equity Returns

Abstract: This is the first study that uses Merton's (1974) option pricing model to compute default measures for individual firms and assess the effect of default risk on equity returns. The size effect is a default effect, and this is also largely true for the book-to-market (BM) effect. Both exist only in segments of the market with high default risk. Default risk is systematic risk. The Fama-French (FF) factors SMB and HML contain some default-related information, but this is not the main reason that the FF model can explain the cross-section of equity returns.